Returning leased chips

In what condition must leased chips come back, and who stores them?

Equipment returned to Broadcom must be in as good condition as when delivered, fair wear and tear excepted, complete with all parts, with the lessee’s marks removed and all personal information and third-party data wiped. It must comply with law and be free of liens. The lessee hands over maintenance records and logs and, if asked, stores the pods at its cost at the data centre for the period the access agreement allows after a default. Data wiping is the new term an aircraft lease never needed. Dell Financial’s framework agreement also requires all data to be wiped before return.

Randeep Bubbra | Lawyer | Making the next generation of infrastructure financeable · Firm profile · Updated 29 October 2026

What the filed contracts say

Contract	What the filed wording says
Broadcom TPU lease to Anthropic	Returned equipment must be in as good condition as when delivered, fair wear and tear excepted, and complete.
Broadcom TPU lease to Anthropic	All personal information and third-party data must be removed.
Broadcom TPU lease to Anthropic	The lessee returns maintenance records, logs and certificates.
Broadcom TPU lease to Anthropic	The lessee stores returned pods at its cost for the post-default access period.
Dell Financial–Nscale framework agreement	Dell Financial: the customer removes all data, including personal data, and returns the servers where the funder says, at its own cost.
Dell Financial–Nscale framework agreement	Dell Financial: alterations become the funder’s property on return.

The filed wording

Section 17.03 Condition of Equipment on Return. Lessee shall cause any Equipment (including any Pod) returned to Lessor under this Master Agreement and any Schedule to be: (a) in as good condition as when Delivered to Lessee (reasonable wear and tear excepted) and complete with all Parts, including the removal of (i) any marks that Lessee is permitted to apply to the Equipment under the applicable Schedule and (ii) all Personal Information and third-party data from such Equipment; (b) in compliance in all material respects with applicable Law; and (c) free and clear of all Liens.

Broadcom master equipment lease of Google TPU8i pods to an Anthropic subsidiary, section 17.03 · Anthropic S-1/A, Exhibit 10.11

Default and repossession of leased chips Late or faulty equipment Vendor financing of GPU servers, and the bank loan that takes it out Put it on an issues list All contract clauses

On the deal pages

Financings by the parties to these contracts

The latest debt raised by the companies that signed them, with the terms and the sources on each deal page.

Financing	Borrower or issuer	Date	Amount
Pre-IPO convertible loan-note subscription (initial minimum)	Nscale	15 September 2026	US$2.1bn
Dell short-term equipment lease payment schedules (aggregate)	Nscale	4 September 2026	US$2.54bn
North Carolina GPU DDTL	Nscale	31 August 2026	US$1.2bn
Ward County GPU DDTL	Nscale	31 August 2026	US$1.85bn
Macquarie Iceland GPU facility	Nscale	29 July 2026	US$331.9m

Method

Each extract is quoted from the contract as filed with the SEC, checked against the filed text when it was added; “…” marks words left out. Filers redact commercial terms, so a [***] or [*] is the filer's, not ours. The summaries describe the wording, not how a court would read it, and each contract's defined terms and other clauses can change the effect. General information drawn from public filings. It is not legal advice on any transaction, and using this page does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Views are personal.